


Strands that Connect

by Tyranidlord



Series: Sos do dov [13]
Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Forgotten Realms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Character Turned Into Vampire, Dealing with Vampirisim, Depression, Explicit Language, Gen, Immortality, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Vampires, dealing with immortality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-14 02:49:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16484624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tyranidlord/pseuds/Tyranidlord
Summary: “Blood of the gods Kaius, just what happened in here?”Looking up from where he had been sitting, Kaius gave a glance to Sofia and Lydia and the ruin around him, wrapping the last bandage around his forearm. The cloth was already blossoming with blood but the flow was weak and sluggish after the restoration magicka he had used on the collection of claw marks on his arm.“Serana and I did some training.” He said with a smile, pulling the bandage tight around his wrist and tying it off. “It was very enlightening.”----------------------Arriving at the College of Winterhold on the journey to recover an Elder Scroll, Kaius, Sofia, Lydia and Serana have had time to recover from their brief stay at the Frostflow Lighthouse.Now that Kaius has returned from Septimus' outpost the next stage of their journey will begin, but only after they discover Kaius' true reasons for being in Skyrim and the threat that the province and Tamriel faces.





	1. The College

**Author's Note:**

> Well... This is one of my 'darker' stories so far. As an up-front warning it does discuss and go into detail about how some of my characters’ deal/dealt with the fact that they have been granted immortality, turned into vampires, loss of family and traumatic experiences and the fact they have also contemplated and attempted suicide.
> 
> In game the method of becoming a "Pureblood" vampire is mostly glossed over but let's face it; it involves being raped by a demon lord. The lore of TES is a lot darker than what most people give it credit and I'm not shying away from these themes. 
> 
> So consider this my warning as this story will be focussing upon Serana dealing with not only how she is and became a vampire but also the fact that she has literally woken up to a world completely different to her own. It's also going to focus on Kaius and how he has dealt with his own vampirism, loss of his children and the weight of responsibility on his shoulders (mostly his strategies’ varying degrees of success)
> 
> Otherwise, I hope everyone enjoys this latest installment, I would love to hear everyone's thoughts or impressions about this story in particular!

The halls of the college were filled with light, sound and the swirling ethereal currents of magicka that ebbed and flowed from the various study halls and classrooms scattered throughout its enormous stone expanse. Diminutive thunderclaps could be heard within the muffling effects of the hall of elements as Tolfdir continued his lesson on the safe use of destruction magicka and judging from the smells wafting from the alchemy laboratory a lesson was well underway there as well. With the merest turn of the head wondrous sights and experiences could be experienced but for Sofia it was the very last place in all of Skyrim that she wanted to be.  
  
Never in all of her life had Sofia encountered such a vile nest of vipers willing to do anything it took to undermine, harass and belittle their peers and pupils. Some of the more senior mages like Tolfdir were upstanding individuals but unfortunately the rest were about as trustworthy as a half-starved skeever with brainrot. They bickered, fought and connived against each other with a frightening regularity and even after the years since she had lived at the College of Winterhold it hadn’t changed in the slightest.  
  
The fact that she had returned was not lost on her, or indeed any of the residents or mages living within the frozen walls of the college. There was absolutely no mistaking the various looks of disgust and thinly disguised arrogance concealed under a thin veneer of civility that she received around every corner, but as always she simply rolled with the punches and delivered some of her own at the first available opportunity.  
  
Their tiny band of travellers had arrived over a fortnight before and she had wasted no time in integrating herself into the college as though she hadn’t been absent for the better part of a decade. Despite her trepidation that had been growing ever since they began journeying to the college, it was providing her with endless amusement with taunting and infuriating the various students and teachers in every way she could think of.  
  
Kaius’ teachings in the arts of magicka over the previous months had been helping immeasurably and gave her great pleasure in showing how she had learnt more in a few short months than what she had in several years living in Winterhold. Sure, she had spent most of her teenage years within the college drinking everything even remotely alcoholic and bedding a vast majority of her fellow students and the odd teacher or two but she had never really understood just how blinkered the college really was. There had been things that Kaius had forgotten over his long life that the adepts within the college had never even dreamed of, and his knowledge had been equal parts humbling and concerning now that she realised how much was lacking.  
  
About the only portion of the college that wasn’t filled with the varied sounds of spells being cast, talking, shouting and the mumbling of partially interested lecturers to bored students was the Arcanaeum. It existed like a tiny bubble of calm and serenity where only the soft sound of pages being turned, quiet breathing and the faint scratching of quills on parchments and papers could be heard.  
  
Sofia entered the Arcanaeum like a storm rolling in from the Sea of Ghosts, choosing to be completely oblivious to the handful of hissed warnings to be quiet as she simply pushed her way through the doors dressed entirely in her armoured boots and chainmail. While the college was safe and there was little chance of harm besides the odd magical trap or prank she had made a point of striding about in her armour; yet another little detail chosen to annoy the mages in their voluminous robes and silks.  
  
“Shrubby you wet cock, how’s everything hanging? Turned black and shrivelled yet?”  
  
Completely heedless to the chorus of inhaled breaths and the sudden thudding of a student dropping her armful of books in horror, Sofia continued walking over to the tower of green flesh wrapped in arcane robes as it turned and looked at her.  
  
“Sofia...” The orc grumbled with an expression that showed that he was a hair’s length from unleashing one of the famed rages of his race. A thick spined book he was reading snapped shut with the sound of a tomb and he regarded the woman standing on the other side of his desk with eyes sunken in a face turned leathery with age. “What is it you want this time hm? Another collection of erotic woodcarvings? Perhaps the mating rituals of the Camoran Dynasty? No… Wait; the second volume of ‘ _The Lusty Argonian Maid_ ’?”  
  
Sofia shook her head, lifting herself up and sitting on the polish wood of his desk with a sublime grace that seemed even more incredulous due to the fact that she was wearing at least ten kilograms of leather and chainmail. “Nah. Not this time. The last copy of the _Argonian Maid_ I couldn’t read cause all the pages were stuck together. I’m looking for any books on the late period _Zhardum D’faldin_ , preferably chronicling the Dwemer of the third and fourth centuries of the first Era.”  
  
The slow way that he turned and looked into her eyes from his seat was impossible to miss. It was almost as though a green tinged statue had rotated on its pedestal and the expression of annoyance turned into mild surprise.  
  
“Why? If you need to wipe your arse on something do and swipe Phinis’ robes like you did last time.”  
  
“Nah, if I was going to wipe my arse on something I’d use that first edition copy of _'The Wolf Queen'_ you have in that cabinet over there. Anyway, I need it to help out Kaius.”  
  
Grunting and refusing to take Sofia’s dangled bait to the surprise of the collection of mages watching in fearful awe of their conversation, Urag gro-Shub shrugged. “Figures. You wouldn’t know what to do with real knowledge if it slapped you in the face.”  
  
“Sounds like a fun night to me.”  
  
Still refusing to let his expression crack or any emotion to show besides his perpetual scowl, Urag stroked his neatly trimmed white beard with a hand that was as large as Sofia’s head. “There’s a handful of books that might contain what you and your benefactor seeks. Third set of shelves to the right. If even the slightest crinkle is left on their pages I will have you torn apart by atronachs.”  
  
“Don’t keep promising a night of fun if you can’t follow through with it shrubby.” For a moment she twitched as though she was about to slide off his desk but she stopped in mid motion, the enormous grin on her face lessening for a moment. “You wouldn’t happen to have anything detailing the Oblivion Crisis at all?”  
  
“Why, trying to understand concepts that exceed the limited depths of your consciousness?”  
  
“Well, when you put it that way, it isn’t as interesting as finding new positions...”  
  
“Hmph.” He grunted again, cutting her off in mid breath. “There’s a few, but there isn’t much that truly outlines the events of that tumultuous period. There’s a few treatises set during that time, a book or two by some Imperial Archivist or another but really the only book is ‘ _The Oblivion Crisis_ ’ by Praxis Sarcorum.”  
  
“Yeah. Already found it and read it. Didn’t have anything that I was looking for.”  
  
“Well in that case even the bounds of the Arcaneuem are limited in scope. That’s what happens when too many mages treat the books as their own personal property instead of mine.”  
  
The handful of mages seated or standing about the Arcaneuem quickly turned and acted busy as the enormous orc gave them a gaze as cold as a glacier. Sofia took no heed of it, instead smiling and blowing him a kiss as she slid off his desk. “Thanks Shrubby. I’ll bring them back to you once we’re finished with them.”  
  
“See that you do.” He growled threateningly. “Otherwise Dragonborn or not; the two of you will find yourselves guests in your own personal universes of pain.”  
  
Making the obnoxious show of skipping between the enormous bookcases groaning under the weight of centuries of accumulated knowledge, Sofia followed Urag’s directions and found the section and the books she was looking for. The whole way there she could feel the burning gaze of the dozen or more mages in view, watching in complete shock at how she had dealt with the imposing curator of the largest library in Skyrim. To them he was terrifyingly and looked all too capable of following through with his threats of dismemberment and death if they considered damaging any of the items in his care. For Sofia to simply stroll into the Arcaneuem, outright insult him and treat him with disdain and wander off unmolested was inconceivable.  
  
As she found the small collection of tomes she was seeking, Sofia couldn’t help but grin. Urag was possibly the only person in the whole college who had actually been happy to see her again and while he would never admit so or openly show it in public, they both got along famously. They both remembered the time that he caught her stealing from the still that he had set up in his private quarters in the first year she had arrived at the college. He had been angry, but the aging orc was also impressed at how she had disabled the magical locks on his doors, dispelled the wards keeping the bottles of fiery liquor chilled at the precise temperature and the fact that she had drunk more than most grown Nordic men could before passing out. Within the first day that she had returned, the two of them had shared a bottle or two in private and caught up for the years that she had been gone and were both left with hangovers as a result.  
  
“Have you seen Serana around Shrubby?” Sofia asked as she moved past his desk with her new acquisitions safely tucked into a bag at her hip.  
  
Again the enormous orc looked up from the collection of books he was cataloguing and growled so deeply that she could feel it in her stomach. There was amusement in his eyes but everyone else in the college library began surreptitiously taking cover from the expectation of a magical judgement falling upon Sofia’s head. “She came in a few hours ago and asked permission to enter the botany, which I provided.”  
  
“Thanks.” Her tone was light and musical as she bounced and jingled towards the door in her chainmail. “Be seeing you.”  
  
The eyes of everyone present watched her every move as she left the Arcanaeum and there was more than one who sighed in relief once she was gone. None saw the slightest of curls that threatened to break Urag’s hard expression as he turned back to his collection once more.  
  
Whistling loudly, Sofia made her way through the interior corridor that connected everything to the towering Hall of Elements as though the main structure was a gemstone on a ring. Handfuls of mages were making their own way about between lessons and while the morning was still young there were many who would still be asleep. For the first years that she had lived at the college, the fact that nothing was really enforced had been the greatest thing she had ever experienced, and while she still loved such personal freedoms she realised just how ineffective it all was. The student mages were not really expected to attend lessons and neither were the teachers. In many cases, the few times that she had attended lessons there was no guarantee that anyone would arrive to actually teach them anything. Only the handful like Tolfdir actually put effort into their responsibilities and tried to impart what knowledge they had onto the latest generation of magicka users.  
  
The magical fonts that simmered and glowed with their latent energies which no longer gave her headaches as she passed them. This in itself was yet another reminder of how much Kaius had been teaching her. Her skill with a sword was improving every day but her magicka was advancing in great leaps and bounds. It was truly humbling just how much Kaius understood the theory behind all magicka. He wasn’t anywhere near as powerful as even half the mages of the college, or even knew a tenth as many spells as the senior mages but he _knew_ Magicka in ways they would never be able to comprehend.    
  
Making her way into the Hall of Becoming past a dozen or more junior mages following Faralda for their morning lesson Sofia shook her head in amazement at how young she had been. She may still have been the youngest of the group, even ignoring the fact that she was travelling with two vampires but journeying the world had been opening her eyes in more ways than one.  
  
Pulling the cork stopper out of a bottle that had been sharing the bag with the collection of books, she took a mouthful and smacked her lips appreciatively. Urag it appeared was still making excellent alcohol, even if there was still the hint of void salts within the brew. Chuckling to herself in amusement at what his reaction would be when he’d find some of his stash missing, she began climbing the staircase in her search for the oldest of her vampiric comrades.


	2. Contemplation

Winter may have been a couple of months away, but in this frozen landscape of Skyrim’s north there was no such thing as summer. The wind howled from the north year round, and blizzards were common no matter the season but on the occasions that the sky was clear the view from the towering ramparts of the College were incredible to behold.  
  
Not on this day however, and a cold chill was passing from the desolate wastes of Atmora far to the north across the seemingly endless expanse of water and icebergs. The clouds were beginning to lower themselves to the hardened ground and the towering mountains surrounding Winterhold to the South, threatening sleet or snow from their darkened bellies as they grew fat and bloated with every passing minute. Their wordless voices moaned around the bitterly cold stonework of the college and forced everyone to the warmth offered in the enormous edifice’s interior, but one lone individual remained behind.  
  
Serana stood on the edge of the Botany’s roof between the heavy stone crenulations that had long since become worn from the uncaring elements. The toes of her boots were resting with millimetres to spare between her and the sudden and dizzying drop of the College’s walls but vertigo could not find a grip on her mind. If she had been mortal, the buffeting wind would have threatened to plunk her from roof like a wayward branch or at the very least would have frozen her to the core. A mortal would have succumbed to the cold over an hour previously but for the ancient vampiress it was barely more than an annoyance.  
  
It was strangely fitting that she could find solace in the cold, even if it was somehow a different cold to that she had been used to growing up in Castle Volkihar and her initial centuries as a vampire. There had been so many changes to the world during her millennia long slumber that she still struggled to comprehend that it was indeed the same world that she had awoken to. Races, kingdoms, even entire _Empires_ had come and gone. The Ayleids had vanished to the ravages of time and the Dwemer had simply vanished without a trace. The Nords had grown into a powerful people and a force to be reckoned with, and had waned and renewed themselves several times in her absence. To the south the bickering, quarrelling tribes of slaves of Cyrod had managed to claw themselves into rulers of the world not once, but _several_ times. Even further to the south were even stranger sights and stranger beings and in the two months that she had been travelling with Kaius she had borne witness to things that she couldn’t have even imagined.  
  
Sofia had found it immensely hilarious when Serana had first laid eyes on a Khajiit on the road north from Riften, and the first time meeting an Argonian hadn’t been much different. To think that such creatures had too formed kingdoms and had once been incorporated into the _Cyrodillic_ Empire was staggering and it was as though all of the beings and stories she had read in her family’s castle had paled in comparison to reality.  
  
It was difficult to truly understand that things had changed, the world she had found herself in wasn’t the same world that she had said goodbye to when her mother had pressed that button and the sarcophagus had ground shut. She knew that she would never know whether it had been hours, or days or even months before the enchantments woven into the Sarcophagus’ interior had taken effect but to have lost the better part of three thousand years in what felt like the time taken to close her eyes and sleep was almost incomprehensible.  
  
But some things had also survived the long march of time and were not welcome. The Ancestral enemies of the Volkihar Family and the Atmorans; the Snow Elves had mutated into unspeakable monsters. Their chance meeting was not one that she wished to repeat and that night in the caverns under the lighthouse had joined the other memories of pain and horror that she relived every night. It mightn’t have been the worst experience of her surprisingly long life but it was certainly the most recent.  
  
So she found solace in the smaller things, the familiar and unchangeable. Everything else in her world may have shifted, changed and otherwise mutated but the cold was incapable of doing so. It wrapped around her limbs like an old friend, turning her leathers and thick woollen clothing hard and chilled at temperatures that would’ve burned to a mortal being. She could feel it caressing over her bare face and the tiniest hints of snow brushing against her skin as the enormous drop stretched away before her.  
  
One of the first days they had arrived and when she had discovered a way to access the various rooftops of the College had been clear and had left her stunned at the sight. It had a century or so before her entombment but she had remembered how her father had brought her to Winterhold. Solitude may have been the current capital of Skyrim but in those years long ago, Winterhold had reigned supreme over the fledging Nordic Empire. She couldn’t remember why they had come but she remembered the college as it stood back then. Somehow despite being smaller, the older college was far more majestic and awe inspiring over the crumbling ruin perched atop a spire of stone that it was now.  
  
The sights from the roof were unmatched and even without her vampiric sight and the encroaching clouds she could see _everything_. Stretching from horizon to horizon, the Sea of Ghosts dominated the landscape and she was left believing that with a little more height she might have been able to see far off Atmora on the other side. In the other direction she could see the expanse of Skyrim’s northern coastline, curving around towards Dawnstar across the merciless glacial expanse of the Pale that they had crossed to reach the college, and to the south east were the mountains bordering Winterhold and Windhelm. The towering peaks reached into the sky as though they were taunting the elements and refusing to bow before anything, but their majesty only served to highlight the pitiful remnants of the town nestled into their roots.  
  
Winterhold was certainly not the bustling city that Serana had remembered from so long ago. The previous seat of the High Kings of Skyrim was now little more than a mottled ruin surrounded by the broken shards of its own glory. Kaius had mentioned that the last time he had been to Winterhold had been over a century and a half before and while it wasn’t the largest city in Skyrim at the time, it certainly wasn’t as… _abandoned_ as it was now. Three quarters of the city had slid into the ocean during the Great Collapse and many hadn’t survived. Those that did for the most part had moved on and instead of a city numbering tens of thousands like the other hold capitals, there was only a thousand or so remaining, clinging to life like a tenacious moss at the base of the broken College.  
  
Closing her eyes to the sights and ignoring the drop at her fur lined boots Serana simply concentrated on listening to the music of the world. The wind moaned a deep baritone around the College, the waves and crashing breakers a hundred metres below rippled through the air with their percussive impacts and only audible to her enhanced hearing were the booms of a distant storm and the haunting calls of a pod of whales several kilometres out to sea. It was peaceful, serene and calming if not for the insidious whispers worming their way into her mind.  
  
She could feel them as though they were living things, pressing, prodding and prying away at her sanity. There were more than one and they were unfortunately all too familiar to her. The subtle strands of thought and emotion that gnawed away, millimetre by millimetre and left their venomous scars across her psyche. That tiny whisper of formless emotion that promised an end to everything if she would lean that tiny fraction towards the yawning abyss at her feet and allow it to claim her. That sensation was the most tempting of them all, the desire to experience _nothing_ but another portion had other plans.  
  
Promising power, strength and never to feel fear again, the older, _darker_ portion of her mind whispered pledges that it had already fulfilled several times before. Freedom from doubt and terror and the ability to take hold of her own destiny was within her grasp and she could almost taste the flesh-changes that would come with it. It had been the sibilant crawling sensation that she knew all too well before, and had been the one that had allowed her to once again survive when confronted with being eaten alive only a few weeks before. It definitely wasn’t the first time that the darker side to her being had been responsible for ensuring her continued existence. If she gave into the temptation of nothingness it wouldn't be the first time she had pitched herself off the walls of a fortress.  
  
The loud banging noise startled her and shook the darkening hold of emotions away from her mind, as did the sudden and explosive series of expletives from the person climbing up the tiny ladder onto the roof. As the wind continued increasing in strength and the temperature decreasing rapidly it proved powerful enough to snatch the hatch out of Sofia’s hand and slam it hard against the stonework.  
  
“Aren’t you cold?”  
  
Serana shrugged and looked over her shoulder as Sofia climbed out onto the roof behind her. One hand dragged the heavy fur hood over her head as the wind whipped her ponytail about, while the other was still clutching a bottle of spirits that she continued taking mouthfuls from. Serana didn’t need to look at the much younger, mortal woman walking over towards her to know that tears would be pricking at her eyes and the cold would be penetrating through her clothes with every second.  
  
“Right, Volkihar Vampire and all that. Never thought the old legends about you lot would have been that accurate.”  
  
“Which legends are those?” Serana’s voice was threatened to be snatched away from the wind as she continued standing near the edge of the precipice.  
  
“You know; the ones about your kind laying under frozen lakes and dragging the unwary to their watery dooms? Those legends.”  
  
“ _Hmph_. There’s some truth in the tales. My father had some of his forces lay an ambush under a lake once. He couldn’t stop boasting about how they drove off a Haafinger raiding party in such a way.”  
  
“Well, whaddya know.” Sofia took another mouthful of eye wateringly potent alcohol as though it was water. “When was this?”  
  
“During the first war of Succession after the death of King Borgas. Very much ancient history these days.” For a moment Serana closed her eyes and felt Sofia’s presence by her body heat and heartbeat alone. Already the cold was starting to seep through her clothes and chill the flesh despite Sofia’s cultural tolerance of it. “Were you looking for me?”  
  
Trying hard not to shiver, Sofia took another mouthful and smiled at the warmth seeping into her belly. “Yeah. Kaius sent me to find you. Apparently he needs some help with something.”  
  
“I’m guessing it’s to do with whatever he’s been working on in the midden?”  
  
“Your guess is as good as mine. He did say that he needed all of us down there after dinner, so I guess that he’s almost finished his little project.”  
  
“What are you going to do?”  
  
Sofia grunted, tilted the bottle up and drained the rest in a handful of shuddering gulps before flinging it into the vast emptiness of broken rocks and crashing waves far below them. “Firstly, get the fuck off this roof and out of the wind. I hate heights. After that, I’m going to find something else to drink and have a read through these books Shrubby gave me. Kaius is up to something.”  
  
“I get the feeling that he’s always up to something.” Serana murmured to herself.  
  
Turning away and moving back towards the opened hatch into the portion of the college containing the botany, Sofia pulled her furs in tightly and shook herself. She glanced back at the ancient vampiress who hadn’t moved a muscle away from the edge of the roof and saw the way that she was staring off across the open water.  
  
“Well? You coming?”  
  
Serana stood for a few seconds longer, feeling the pull of the abyss and the way that the drop called to her despite the futility of what it represented. The darkness within her was not going to easily let her go.  
  
“I’m coming.” She said instead, turning and taking the first steps away from the chasm. 


	3. True Natures

While they all had been within the College for approaching three weeks now, Kaius had not spent the entire time within its walls. Shortly after arriving he had managed to acquire further information that the man that he had travelled to meet was no longer present. Esbern’s investigation into the location of the Dragon Scroll had left them with the knowledge that an Imperial Scholar named Septimus Signus had written extensively about the Scrolls that had never been acquired by the Elder Moth Temple. Up until a year previous he had made the college his home but thankfully the trail continued a short distance away on an island off the coast and Kaius had chosen to make the journey alone.  
  
He had returned a few days later, obviously more confident and with further success but instead of preparing the next leg of their journey he had thrown himself into a different project entirely. For the first few days he integrated himself into the college, doing favours and the handful of odd tasks or assisting some of the mages with their studies in exchange for favours and various items. He even used some of the coin that they had managed to acquire during their long journey and the various bounties they had acquired to purchase various alchemical ingredients and mystical items before vanishing into the midden to conduct his ‘ _studies_ ’. Only Sofia, Serana and Lydia knew that whatever he was doing, undertaking studies into the arcane like the rest of the college residents was not it.  
  
As Serana entered the stone lined room where Kaius had practically been living for the past days she found herself curious and somewhat confused at what she found. In the middle of the floor was an enormous circle of runes and swirling shapes that somehow hurt the eyes if looked at too closely. The smell of incense and void salts hung heavy on the air and seemingly scattered about at random was collection of candles stuck into the floor at various intervals and marking out four smaller circles like the cardinal points of a compass. It was unlike anything she had seen before and while it shared similarities with the various destruction runes used to create magical traps, for the moment it sat quietly and uncharged.  
  
By now most of the college knew that the _Dragonborn_ was practicing some arcane rite within the bowels of the college, and a handful of the more senior members had even approached Kaius directly for an explanation. Some of them had entered the midden personally to view Kaius’ efforts and had left more confused than before. Serana had heard the talk through the college how Tolfdir, Sergius and Faralda had seen what Kaius was doing and simply considered that he was attempting to combine several rituals and spells and wouldn’t do anything more than loosen his coinpurse as a result. Staring across the extremely precise construction of whatever the circle-rune-thing was she knew that like always, he knew exactly what he was doing.  
  
He was however, not in the room, but judging by the faint sounds of boots on stone and a strange ripping sound like a bolt of cloth being torn he wasn’t far. Following the sounds carefully through the semi-darkness of the midden she found him in a smaller room with a much higher ceiling, stripped to the waist and practicing with his broadsword.  
  
Even though she was not much of a fighter, and had yet to seen Kaius in action against anything more than that hapless highwayman who tried to rob them on their way from Whiterun there was something alluring to the way that he fought. Like most things about him, his skill with the sword was a combination of superb reflexes that were not entirely a result of his vampiric nature and an extreme preciseness that revealed the utter control he had over his every action. Ghosting into the room and moving as quietly as only a vampire could, she watched as he continued to twirl and slice, parry imaginary blows and alternate between using one or both hands as effortlessly as breathing. On at least two occasions he plucked the dagger strapped to his thigh, twirling it in his fingers like a street performer, stabbing into his imaginary foe and sheathing it almost as though he had conjured it.  
  
In a sickening way it was hard not to look at him despite her own misgivings at finding herself in a room with a half dressed man. The scars of countless battles and victories twisted and strained at the flesh, his arms in particular being a mesh of crisscrossing blade wounds that looked almost as old as what he was. His right shoulder was obviously more pronounced and muscular, but not overwhelmingly so as a result of his life as an archer but these minor details paled in comparison to the twisting, plucked scar tissue on his bicep and writhing up his hip and chest. The burn was livid and an angry pink from his exertion of his practice where it consumed to his stomach, side and chest and poking out from under the ancient pink-white burns on his arm the tips and head of the Imperial Dragon could be seen.  
  
“Do you know the problem with sparring on your own?” He said without stopping his movements and fight against his imaginary foe.  
  
Serana stood in silence and while she shrugged she wasn’t certain if he had even seen her movement before he continued.  
  
“You never truly learn or improve by doing so. A pretend enemy is always similarly skilled to yourself but yet easily beaten. Practice alone too often and you may become drunk on the pride of victory and found wanting when you cross blades with a true enemy.”  
  
All sixty centimetres of skyforged steel kissed the air and stopped in his outstretched arm without the hint of a waver or tremble. He held it for a handful of seconds, before turning and grinning in her direction.  
  
“You need my help with something?” She said quietly.  
  
Nodding and moving over to the wall, he took a couple of mouthfuls from a nearby waterskin and dried some of the sweat off himself with a rough towel. The towel, waterskin and a collection of other items were sitting alongside his armour where it had been laid out in a neat arrangement and it was obvious that he had also been sleeping in the Midden rather than the room allocated to him in the Hall of Attainment. It was something that all his other companions had noticed that he was purposely staying away from the members of the College. He had also been pushing himself harder in his training since their stay with Habd and his family.  
  
“Yeah.” His spare sword and its scabbard was plucked from where it lay and he tossed it underarm to her, the leather straps fluttering in the air before she caught it. “I need a sparring partner.”  
  
Looking surprised, Serana looked down at the weapon in her hands, and back up to Kaius where he was grinning enormously. “You can’t be serious, I’m not a fighter. Not to your skill at least.”  
  
“Doesn’t matter. I can only train with Sofia and Lydia so much before it becomes stale and stops providing as much of a benefit. You’re a vampire which means that you can keep up with me far better than they can.”  
  
“Doubtful.” She muttered, taking another look at the sword he had provided and grimacing. After a few moments hesitation she growled in annoyance, shrugging off her cloak and heavier outer layers of furs still partially frozen from her time on the roof and leaving her in just her pants and tunic.  
  
His grin was still as large as ever as she stepped closer, gripping the weapon in a tight, yet relaxed grip with both hands. There was a wariness filling both of them, like a pair of wolves circling and gaining the measure of each other as they moved closer.  
  
Lashing out with her blade in a feint, she saw the way that Kaius twisted out of the path with the grin ever present on his face. The first blow had been half hearted and barely faster than what a mortal could perform and he knew it.  
  
“Come on Serana, I know you can do much better than that.”  
  
The next blow was painfully loud as their swords struck together and the impact jarred its way up her arm. Any lesser forged weapons would have been chipped by the blow but the incredible blades had been forged by Eorlund Gray-Mane in the Skyforge itself. Both were incredible weapons, and each have been gifted to Kaius as a result of his deeds in the past years. His Broadsword had been the gift from Jarl Balgruuf along with his title of Thane after slaying the dragon of Whiterun, and the other sword had been his gift after joining the Companions.  
  
The next few seconds were a blur of movement and sound, metal ringing through the room’s cramped interior as they traded a number of blows that should’ve taken a minute or more had they been mortal. Each blow was strong enough to shatter shields and snap lesser blades and despite herself Serana found herself enjoying the simple nature of the sparring session.  
  
With both weapons ringing faintly in their hands, they separated and began to circle each other warily. Kaius as always seemed to glide over the uneven floor as though he was floating and only Serana was capable of matching his liquid grace.  
  
“So why are we doing this?”  
  
Kaius flicked her sword thrust away, twisting the blades around with nothing more than his wrist as he weaved an arc of steel in the air between them. “Like I said. I need a sparring partner.”  
  
“That’s not the only reason why you wanted me down here.”  
  
Silence fell between them, broken only by the odd metallic crash and soft footfalls. “Sofia told me about what happened at the Lighthouse,” He said suddenly as they continued sliding their way around the edge of the room. “how when the Falmer came you hesitated and resisted your nature.”  
  
“It wasn’t as simple as that.” Serana replied, moving almost on instinct as Kaius’ sword flicked out and slapping it away with a parry that was too fast for the eye to see.  
  
“That I can believe, but it concerns me that you are struggling against who you are.”  
  
“Who says that I’m struggling?”  
  
Their blades came together and the way that Kaius twisted his wrist left the air filled with sparks as he neatly twisted her blade out of her hand and flung it away. He stopped in place for a moment before stepping back to allow her to retrieve her weapon, holding his own to his side in a deceptively open stance.  
  
“I don’t have to be a vampire to see that you have concerns and troubles dealing with being one yourself. Strangely enough it is one of the few reasons why I don’t have an issue with you being with us.”  
  
“I thought that you have me around because I’m bait for the rest of my clan.”  
  
“Not entirely true. That may be a part of why I originally considered you coming along but things are more complicated now.” With a simple, effortless roll of his wrist he twirled his sword about until it made a deep _thrum_ sound in the air. “How many times have you tried to kill yourself?”  
  
Serana stopped, her mouth opening in shock at his casually spoken words before clamping her jaw tightly closed. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”  
  
All of the joviality had vanished and Kaius’ motions had become slow and controlled. “Yes you do.”  
  
Seeing the way that she refused to answer, and the way that her eyes moved away from him he sighed and gave a very mild smile that was infuriatingly calming. “I can hazard a guess that it hasn’t been once or twice, and certainly hasn’t been the same method for each attempt. I also know for personal experience that it wasn’t a polite word from someone caring that made you fail, but _something_ else entirely.”  
  
“Six times.” her voice was cold and impossible to hear without the hearing of a vampire.  
  
“Cutting, drowning, taking poison and possibly jumping?”  
  
This time her eyes bored into his and there were the tinges of fire within them. Too faint to see with mortal eyes, it was still enough that Kaius could see that they had begun to glow. “You can’t possibly know that.”  
  
“Maybe not for certain, but I know how it feels to be… cursed.”  
  
“You have no comprehension of what I have been through.” Her words crawled out of her mouth like a hiss and for the moment the sword in her hand was forgotten.  
  
“I reckon that I do. You’re a pureblood vampire, one of the very first of our kind and gained the curse directly from Molag Bal himself. I have seen and read enough to know exactly what that entails. While I couldn’t possibly hope to imagine what it was like I know all too well how becoming a vampire changes you.”  
  
Rage filled her and she looked at the way he stood there, casually smacking the flat of his blade against a leg. “Don’t talk to me like you know me or know how it feels to be a… a monster.”  
  
“A monster? Serana, _I am a monster_... We have a lot more in common than you would like.” His laugh only served to fuel her anger further. “Do you know how I became a vampire?”  
  
Seeing the way that she paused with hesitation he shrugged his shoulders and slid his sword back into its sheath. “I was bitten and while I cured the infection from its fangs I had inadvertently missed the fact that the… disease was also spread by blood. When I killed the one that bit me its blood got into a wound on my arm and for the next few weeks it spread. This was during the weeks before the Oblivion Crisis truly began and when I fully turned into a vampire it happened to be when I had first entered Oblivion itself.”  
  
Gesturing to her while wearing something of a regretful expression he sighed loudly. “The very first creature that I drank the blood from was a Dremora. Not just any Dremora mind you but a Markynaz by the name of Reive. It appears that when a vampire drinks the blood of such creatures it changes them and turns them into a different breed.”  
  
“So you are one of these ‘ _different_ ’ vampires.” She stated flatly.  
  
“I’m not one of them, I am the _only_ one.” For a moment she was about to ask the obvious question but her forestalled her with a raised hand. “At least as far as I can tell. There may have been others over the millennia who did something similar, but the trick is that the very first being a vampire feeds on has to be a daedra to have the effect that it had on me. I am certain I am the only one to have succeeded and believe me, I have spent most of the past two centuries searching for records or evidence that I am not the only one.”  
  
Moving closer while gesturing to her his grin slowly began to regrow on his face. “Now, I know very well what kind of creature your father is. I’ve seen enough of his type to know a power mad tyrant when I see one but when he showed his _true_ form to me I saw what a pureblood can be. This leaves me very curious on a number of things; first and foremost is whether you share more than just your blood with your father.”  
  
“Enough, I don’t want to discuss this.”  
  
“Oh? Are you just going to turn your back and close your eyes and pray that it’s all over soon? Isn’t that what you did that got you stuck in this situation in the first place? Giving in to him and a daedric prince?”  
  
Her roar of anger as she twisted around shook dust from the ceiling and of its own accord her arm snapped out much faster than the eye could follow, grasping Kaius around the throat and lifting him off his feet. Despite their difference in size and bodyweight she held him aloft for a heartbeat without any effort before throwing him with enough force that he bounced off the far wall.  
  
“Well, I deserved that.” He said, painfully pushing himself up onto his hands and knees and looking up to where Serana was staring horrified at the way her flesh began returning to normal and her fingernails shortened. For those few seconds her flesh had turned from the soft, porcelain like colouration to one that was greyish and sickly with the texture of leather.  
  
Growling through a throat that was still softening and relaxing and feeling the tingling of her incisors as they slid back into her gums she tried her best to ignore the purring in her mind to fall upon him with fang and claw. It was infuriating to see that he also knew exactly what was going through her mind as he rose to his feet, pressed his hands to his side and groaned.  
  
“Besides angry, how are you feeling right now?”  
  
Her lips were pursed and tight as she gave him a stare that would have left anyone else’s blood running cold with terror. “What do you think?”  
  
“Obviously insulted, but I know that you are currently hating yourself for reacting like that and for losing control. Every minute of every day I know that you are struggling with that little voice, or sensation in the back of your head that is driving you on to hurt and kill and drink the blood of everything and everyone around you. I also know that there is a lot of times where you have been left wondering whether that voice or whatever is actually part of you at all or some Oblivion spawned creature, possibly even Molag Bal Himself driving you do all the things you really don’t want to. Then there are the days when you worry even more that it isn’t something dwelling in your mind but actually _you_ instead. You are terrified that there is a part of you stained as black as the night that revels in drinking blood, in dominating and hurting people.”  
  
A finger tapped against his temple and while he had returned to grinning it was not the same infuriating grin as before. “I’ve had that little voice in my skull for a while, although for these last few decades it’s had company. It is the one thing that all vampires share and the fact that just then you looked guilty and upset with losing control than me pissing you off shows a great deal about you.”  
  
“Like what?”  
  
“That despite all the shit that you have gone through, that deep down you are still _human_. Most vampires lose that little spark of humanity within the first days of being turned or just go insane instead.”  
  
With a loud metallic clatter, Serana dropped her sword and gestured about the room hopelessly. “What difference does all this make? Why are we even having this conversation? Better yet, why do you even care? I’m a vampire, you’re a vampire, and we’re both going to live out the rest of our days until we die and become playthings for Molag Bal. I used to think that if I killed myself that all this pain would simply go away and that would be that. I’m not standing here because I’m incompetent or can’t even commit suicide properly, I’m still breathing because this _curse_ will not let me go! Can you even imagine how it feels to cut your wrists and for the world to go dark, only to wake up drenched in someone else’s blood because you fed on them to survive? How about throwing yourself from the battlements and just before striking the rocks something else takes over your body and you find yourself flying?”  
  
Kaius tapped on a thin scar on his chest that sliced in the grove between his pectoral and sternum. “A few years after the Great War I found myself in a battle against a group of dissidents within Menzoberranzan. The Underdark is a cruel place but at that point I was so drowned in my sorrow of losing my children that I let a Drow Blademaster stab me in the chest. Her technique was flawless and for all accounts I shouldn’t be here either. Instead, the hardest part of the fight was reigning in my own excesses before I turned on those I was fighting alongside. Even after all these years there truly isn’t a way that I can effectively shackle what I am. I can only direct it, not tame it. Unlike you I especially can’t try to lock it away forever.”  
  
“Even if we ‘ _control_ ’ it, in the end it doesn’t matter. We are damned.”  
  
“Not necessarily.” Sighing and feeling his side where the impact against the wall had cracked a rib Kaius gave her a very pointed stare. “It’s rare indeed for vampires to be able to breed, but a few of our kind are capable of doing so. The Vampyrum Order has spent centuries trying to cure the vampire’s sterility but it still mostly comes down to luck. By all accounts Viconia and I shouldn’t have had children at all, but we did. Caiden began showing signs of vampirism when he reached puberty and Astinoa was the same and once they reached twenty years old they had effectively stopped aging at all. Caiden joined the Blades, and Astinoa became a mage and a student of a good friend of mine.”  
  
Serana listened despite herself and her simmering anger. During their time together she had never heard him mention much of his history. From what she had spoken to Sofia and Lydia about she also knew that he had never really told them much either. As they stood there, she could tell that he was struggling to keep his composure.  
  
“Caiden died just before the Great War began when the Aldmeri Dominion killed all of the Blades in their territories. His skull was one of those delivered to Titus and Astinoa and I were captured three years later when the Imperial City fell. Naarifin had been using my connection with the Dremora Reive who he had bound to this plane to gather intelligence about the Empire. In doing so I had been serving the entire Empire up to them on a silver platter without knowing. They ambushed us in the catacombs under the City, killed her and threw me into the slave pits to die.”  
  
Taking a moment to calm himself, Kaius looked down at his hands where the faint hints of talons were shifting under the surface of his fingertips. “Anyway, after the war ended and I left the Surface I spent the next few years learning everything I could about the daedric realms. Valas; Viconia’s brother and I did everything we could looking for the souls of my children in Coldharbour but in the end it was fruitless.”  
  
“You couldn’t save them.” Serana whispered.  
  
The laugh from Kaius was not the reaction that she was expecting, nor the fact that it was actually a pleasant one and not tinged with bitterness. “It was fruitless because we couldn’t find them in Molag Bal’s Realm. They weren’t there. Neither of us are entirely sure of where in Aetherius they are but they are certainly not in Rape God’s clutches.”  
  
Again the silence fell between them and the smile on Kaius’ face was a pleasant one and not the taunting one that he had been using before to test her. She watched him carefully for a minute or so while she tried to make sense of the jumbling thoughts in her mind. “What would you have done if you found them?”  
  
“If they were in Coldharbour?” he shrugged. “Go in and get them out of there of course.”  
  
“You were going to willingly enter a daedric realm?”  
  
“Why not? During the Oblivion Crisis I entered Oblivion on three separate occasions. Hells, I was present when Mehrunes Dagon Himself appeared at the end of the Crisis. It also wouldn’t have been the first, second or even _third_ time that I have had to fight a god or demi-god before. If it meant getting the souls of my children or anyone away from the likes of _Him_ then I would do so without hesitation.” He glanced back at her and saw the tiniest hint of understanding begin to blossom within her mind. “There is absolutely no guarantee that any of us, vampire or otherwise will be forced into any of the realms of Aedra or Daedra but there is guarantee that this curse of ours is not undefeatable. It can be controlled just like any of our other physical or mental desires, but we need to understand what drives it.”  
  
“And you understand your desires?”  
  
“Better than most, the darkness in me is almost like an old friend these days but it has not been easy. I believe I can show and teach you how to live with yourself but only if you are willing and let me.”  
  
“Why though?”  
  
“Why? To be honest it’s partially because I see in you a lot of myself when I first turned. Back then I was simply flowing wherever the winds of fate seemed fit to take me and it took me nearly two centuries to start to make my own path. It’s also partially because several storms are on the horizon and this world is going to taste war and destruction on a scale not seen since the Oblivion Crisis. I can no longer do this on my own. I need friends, and allies in what is coming and you are potentially one of them.”  
  
Chewing on her lip in thought, Serana looked about the room and all the little signs of the man who had been living in there over the previous days. His armour was well cared for and stacked neatly but the dents and scratches across its surface showed that he was not one for skulking when danger approached. She also didn’t need to see the overwhelming amounts of scar tissue across his body to know that he was a survivor.  
  
“So, if you are going to teach me, then what are we going to do?”  
  
This time his grin was dangerous and slightly feral with the hints of lengthened incisors. “To take a page out of Sofia’s book, I was thinking that we might try something like ‘ _I’ll show you mine if you show me yours_.”  
  
“Show you my what?”  
  
“Your true nature, the _real_ vampire.”  
  
“What if I can’t control it? What if I attack you?”  
  
Every inch of her scarred companion was oozing confidence and it was hard not to feel some measure of safety in his presence. “I have personally fought and slain three dragons and a demi-god, I reckon I can handle anything that you can dish out. But to put your fears to rest I’ll show you what happens when you drink the blood of a daedra and a dragon.”  
  
Shuddering and tensing he growled and rolled his neck as he called upon his darker nature. Serana watched with horror and fascination as his body shifted and grew, bones snapping and stretching as he changed. The first centuries of her existence had left her as a witness to hers and her parents ability to transform into what they called ‘Vampire Lords’ but Kaius’ transformation was different again. His fingers didn’t lengthen like theirs did but instead grew black talons right out of the tips of his fingers, and she couldn’t help but feel nauseous at the sounds of his jawbones breaking and elongating until his mouth had stretched into something vaguely reptilian in appearance.  
  
His skull also stretched and widened as his brow grew more pronounced as though he was in the process of growing horns and for a moment she was struck with the way how he appeared somewhat draconic in appearance. There was no humanity left in his eyes as they turned into dark pools of ink-like horror, sinking into the depths of his skull where they burned with terrible intensity. Strange bony protrusions also writhed and twisted under the flesh of his shoulders, chest and arms and made the mass of scar tissue pucker and tighten but within seconds he stood before her as a vison from the worst of nightmares.  
  
“ **As powerful as I am, I know almost nothing of your father’s abilities and strengths.** ” The growl from his throat and through the maw of fangs reverberated through her chest with its potency and she could even feel it through the soles of her boots. “ **I have to admit that part of the reason why I wish to test and teach you is it has been a long time since I had a truly worthy adversary. Rest assured though that I will not take advantage of you, and that whatever benefit I gain from this I will repay tenfold.** ”  
  
Staring with some fearfulness at the hard-skinned being standing before her she struggled with her own desires and fears. Facing such a monster wearing the flesh of the man that she had willingly left Castle Volkihar to seek out left her less worried about her own nature. He had experienced what it was like to fall to darkness and had clawed his way back which meant he could lead her out of the abyss if she fell.  
  
He stood in complete silence, watching and waiting to see what her decision would be and other than the horrid, rasping noise he made breathing through the maw of serpentine fangs there was utter silence in the Midden. The whirlpool of thoughts threatened to overwhelm Serana’s mind as she considered Kaius’ words and intent and despite her fear there was a new niggling sensation creeping into her consciousness.  
  
Here was a man who had faced his demons, both within and without and had refused to back down. He had faced everything his curse could provide and fought tooth and claw against anything and everything. When they had first returned to Castle Volkihar after her awakening he had walked into the den of her family without any concern and while she now knew that he considered her and her father to be terrible threats he wasn’t afraid. This was the same man, who when faced with her father’s vampiric form and offered a measure of his power had turned his nose up at it and laughed. Staring at the thing that was Kaius’ vampiric form she could feel the same confidence sitting just out of her reach, but also knowing that all she had to do was lean that bit further into the void and dare for something different. If Kaius wasn’t afraid of her father, the very terror of her waking hours or the shadow of her soul, then perhaps she didn’t need to be either.  
  
Making a conscious decision, Serana looked into Kaius’ blackened eyes and began breathing. The first few breaths were slow and purposeful as she tried to force her body to relax but within seconds she was almost hyperventilating, feeling the overwhelming hatred and fear within the depths of her being. With one last look into Kaius’ _true_ form she forced her natural inclination to supress everything away and allowed her own changes to take hold.


	4. Explanations

“Blood of the gods Kaius, just what happened in here?”  
  
Looking up from where he had been sitting, Kaius gave a glance to Sofia and Lydia and the ruin around him, wrapping the last bandage around his forearm. The cloth was already blossoming with blood but the flow was weak and sluggish after he the restoration magicka he had used on the collection of claw marks on his arm.  
  
“Serana and I did some training.” He said with a smile, pulling the bandage tight around his wrist and tying it off. “It was very enlightening.”  
  
Serana was also sitting in the room, but unlike Kaius she didn’t have any bandages except for those around her hands. Normally delicate in appearance they now would have looked the part on any taproom brawler. Judging by the bruising that covered Kaius it was easy to see what she had been hitting.  
  
“Enlightening?” Sofia turned her head between the two of them with sarcasm dripping from every word. “I always thought that you’d be one for liking it rough but I didn’t expect you to make a mess of the place in the process.”  
  
The portion of the Midden that he had claimed as his living quarters was a lot more destroyed than it had been prior to his arrival. While there was not much blood, there was a lot more broken and tumbled stones and several fresh craters scattered about that ranged in size from fist sized holes to ones that any of them could comfortably sit in.  
  
Turning away from the blackened hole in the wall that still stank of power and ozone, Sofia put on her best smile and tried not to look anxious at whatever had occurred in the hours previously. “So what did you both learn?”  
  
Grimacing and trying not to look embarrassed, Serana gave Kaius and glance before turning her attentions back to her attempts to sew her torn shirt back together. While she was still struggling to do tasks such as sewing with a complete lack of experience, she was steadily improving. “Kaius is much, _much_ stronger than I am.”  
  
“And that’s about my only advantage.” He replied, rising to his feet and painfully grunting as he pulled his own tunic over his head and covered the fresh bruises and old scarring from view. “Serana is a lot faster, and is a lot more magically proficient than I am but she lacks control.” There was absolutely no mistaking the look and half grin he gave her despite her visible trepidation. “For now at least, but that’s something we can work on.”  
  
Lydia and Sofia stepped to the side as Kaius moved past them towards the other room. After a moment’s hesitation Serana gave up trying to fix the holes in her shirt where her shoulder blades would normally be before standing up, straightening her spare shirt she was wearing and leaving the other in a small pile on the floor.  
  
All four of them stood in silence at the sight of the enormous marked out ritual circle in the room, and more than one of them were squinting as the shapes and lines hurt the eyes. It was almost a perfect six metres in diameter and almost entirely filled the room.  
  
“Very impressive Kaius.” Sofia said, looking over it and taking measured sips from a bottle she had seemingly pulled from nowhere. “What is it though?”  
  
“A Scrying Circle.” He replied, moving around the edge of it and taking care not to stand on any of the thin lines painted with a combination of void salts and crushed up jazbay grapes. Flowers petals had also been placed in very specific places and were adhered to the floor with melted beeswax and several sprigs of lavender and tundra cotton had been added around the four smaller circles around the edges.  
  
“What’s it used for?”  
  
“For scrying things.”  
  
More than one of the women rolled their eyes at his sarcastic answer but watched as he picked his way around it performing further checks that everything was still where it should be.  
  
“Very funny Kaius.”  
  
Seemingly satisfied for the moment he regarded the three women with him in thought. “You wanted an answer so I gave you one. It can be used for a number of things but today we will be using it to talk to someone and that’s why I need you all to help me.”  
  
“To talk to someone?” Serana asked. “Can you not walk the Dreamsleeve to accomplish such a task?”  
  
As the only person in their group without the skill or inclination to utilise magicka, Lydia moved around the room staring suspiciously at Kaius’ work. “I’m more interested in who we are going to be talking to.”  
  
The way that he ignored his housecarl’s subtle question was not lost on any of them, nor was the way that he looked hesitant for a second. “The Dreamsleeve is useful, but dangerous in this instance. Dreamers can be hunted and there is no guarantee that your ‘ _conversation_ ’ as such isn’t going to be listened by someone else. The Thalmor uses it extensively to coordinate their agents and even armies and they have the numbers and experience to be ensure a monopoly of sorts. Besides that, the place that we are going to be scrying has creatures and beings that we certainly don’t want to attract the attentions of.”  
  
“Is this safe?”  
  
Kaius gave a mild shrug to Sofia. “I can’t guarantee it with full certainty but I’ve made every preparation to ensure that it’s as possibly safe as it can be. This is an old magicka, and rarely used anymore.”  
  
“But you have done this before at least?”  
  
“Dozens of times. I’ve had plenty of practice at this.”  
  
“We can tell.” Lydia’s tone was cold and it was obvious she was feeling concerned at the situation. “What do you need us for?”  
  
“The ritual can be performed by a single person but its, tiring. The more people, the easier it is to anchor it in place and the longer the ritual can last. Unfortunately, the conversation that I need to have will take some time.”  
  
Sofia, Serana and Lydia shared glances between themselves and Kaius was inwardly pleased to see that none of them shied away from his request. They all knew that they could simply walk out and he wouldn’t think any less of them or be upset with their decision.  
  
As soft as the shadows in the corners of the room, Serana’s voice was quiet and calm. “Show us what we need to do.”  
  
“My thanks to you all.” he gestured to the smaller circles built into the outer layers of the larger one. “I need you each to sit in each of those. Make yourselves comfortable as best as you can and once I begin do not break or otherwise leave yours until it is finished.”  
  
“Why?” Lydia’s suspicious increased as she placed her axe and shield against the wall. “Is it dangerous?”  
  
“No, but it might cause me magical feedback. Worst case scenario is that I end up in a coma for a few days.” He watched as the three women sat into the circles and he began moving about with one of the small pestles he had used to prepare the circle with and began finishing it off. “You can move about, just don’t touch anything or the floor outside of the circles.”  
  
They all looked about themselves and Sofia and Serana especially seemed relaxed and calm in the strangeness of the situation. It was assisted greatly by the fact that the entire room smelt of lavender and honey with the slight bitter tang of the void salts in the back of the throats but Lydia sat as still and tense as a statue made of steel and iron. The whole situation stank of foul magicka that she had been raised on believing was evil and while she trusted Kaius it didn’t make her feel any better about it all.  
  
“I owe you all an explanation.” He said, moving past Lydia and making a few markings on the floor with the bitter paste of Void Salts and crushed Jazbay. “I promised Lydia that I would tell you all everything that is going on and exactly what I am doing here and the events of the past weeks has forced my hand somewhat.”  
  
“You knew a lot about the Falmer.” Sofia said simply. “I for one have never seen anything like them before and none of the old tales’ match what we all saw that night.”  
  
“Nor have I.” Serana’s voice had gone cold as she watched them all with the faintest hints of fire in her eyes. “Although before I was entombed the Snow Elves were still… _normal_.”  
  
Nodding, Kaius knelt down carefully and continued scribbling with the tiny brush and making very careful markings towards the centre. “Indeed they were. For any of this to make sense I will have to give you all a brief history lesson that you will not find in any book.”  
  
The long drawn out breath he had was almost painful and he stood up, wincing at the pain in his ribs from his training with Serana. “In the early first Era, before you were placed in Dimhollow Serana, Tamriel was split between two Empires; the Ayleids and the Dwemer. While smaller kingdoms existed it was these two races that held the greatest sway and power. The Dwemer built their cities and Empire into the ground, and spanned from Red Mountain all the way to the western regions of Hammerfell, while the Ayleids were mostly crammed into Cyrodiil and portions of northern Valenwood and Elsweyr. The fact that the Dwemer built into the ground is one of the main reasons why Men and the Snow Elves were able to forge their own Kingdoms in Skyrim and Morrowind in the first place. They had no interest in the surface and preferred the underground anyway.”  
  
Making his way over towards Serana, he began making similar markings in between her and the centre of the circle as he had in front of Lydia. “Now, when they dug really deep, whether by design or following ancient caves they found something. They found an enormous series of tunnels, caverns, caves and empty expanses spreading through the depths of the world. Think less of a massive cavern as large as Tamriel and more like a giant web with all the tunnels and passages leading this way and that and connecting everything together. Only the Dwemer I suppose would have looked at such a place and found ways to utilise it and instead of building towns and cities and mines on the surface they built their empire in the underground.”  
  
“This I can believe.” Serana added. “During the first centuries of my life I heard stories from those in my father’s court how the Dwemer waged war against the Nordic Kingdoms. Their armies could enter one city and reappear at another seemingly without needing to march the distance between them. Sieges had been broken in this fashion with them sallying out with fresh reinforcements.”  
  
“Exactly. Now I’m almost entirely certain that no one has really been able to explore the entirety of these caverns, much less even attempted in doing so but it is a world all of its own. There are things down there that have never seen the sun. In many cases light at all. It’s an exceptionally dangerous place; easily the most dangerous region in the world but the Dwemer tamed it. You name it they built it in there; roads, farms, villages and so on.”  
  
“Several things changed though, and not just for the dwarves. In what we now consider to be the Second to the Fifth centuries of the First Era the surface began changing. The Nords and Atmorans,” He said, pointing to Serana. “succeeded in forging the first human Empire, while the human tribes in Cyrodiil managed to break free of slavery from the Ayleids and establish their own kingdoms. The Snow Elves after centuries of warfare and outright extermination were driven to the Dwemer who took them in only to enslave them as payment. Over the first two or three centuries after Queen Alessia succeeded in breaking the grip of the Ayleids over mankind her ‘Empire’ as such began following suit. This is different from the Snow Elves as not all of the Ayleid kingdoms practiced slavery, fought against mankind and not all of them were daedra worshippers either. Several of their kingdoms had even lent military aid and even fought side by side men during that war but in the years later they began suffering persecution.”  
  
Finishing the markings in front of Serana he moved over to Sofia, still talking with their undivided attentions. “Now this wasn’t a real pleasant time for anyone but in the late third century the first Ayleid kingdoms in Cyrodiil was given the ultimatum; leave the province or die. Many fled, and several cities were simply slaughtered by the Alessians. Some of the Ayleids left for places like Highrock, Valenwood or the Summerset Isles to be with others of their kind, but there were some who simply vanished. The population of Mackamentain were some of the Ayleids who had been believed to have simply died on their journey or been killed by the human inquisitors and their troops, but they actually escaped to this world under our world.”  
  
Pausing for a moment, he stood and surveyed his work, making measurements in his mind and chewing on his lip in concentration. “These Ayleids were led by their high priestess, a daedra-worshipper named Lloth who after they arrived in the ‘ _Underdark_ ’ usurped the king, took his place and re-established slavery among the non-elven population that had made the journey with them. At some point she also made contact with one of the many dragons who had also made the Underdark their home and from him learned how to use souls and blood and magicka to empower herself and become a god, for all intents and purposes.”  
  
“This is the, ‘ _god_ ’ you killed?” Serana asked hesitatingly.  
  
“Yeah. My wife and I faced her after the Oblivion Crisis and managed to kill her. Had to drain her entirely of blood to finally put her down for good. Anyway, I was digressing a little but while all this was happening and the Ayleids began to change into the elves they are today the Dwemer began their own little projects with the Snow Elves. These days the Dwemer are portrayed as a single unified race despite the fact that most ‘surfacers’ never stop to think about how all their cities are scattered about haphazardly. They fought wars against each other, enslaved each other and came to each other’s assistance against the likes of the Nords. Just like the rest of us, they also weren’t as unified in their ‘worship’ of Logic and Reason… If you can call it such. They too had sorcerers and mages with the usual assortment of daedra worshippers mixed in. One group of them who exclusively lived in the Underdark were apparently well known among their kind to be wizards of terrible power and worshippers of Namira. Their ‘titles’ as such were _Haszak_ , which the closest translation I have been able to find in Dwemeris is ‘ _Flesh-Engineers_ ’.”  
  
Lydia’s snort was loud enough to draw their attention and cut “There are dwarves still alive in this… Underdark?”  
  
“Not that you’d recognise them as anything born in this world if you’d see them. When you spend three thousand years worshipping the daedric prince of all things disgusting it tends to rub off on you. I don’t have anything really against them personally but when you breed by shitting a stomach full of worms or tadpoles or whatever you want to call them into a pond and letting them crawl into the skull of a slave it tends to put people off.”  
  
All three women stopped and stared, the momentary silence broken by Sofia snorting and laughing. “What?”  
  
“You heard me. They’re closer to daedra than anything else these days. Their spawn chew through your nose or ear or the like, burrow into your brain and eat it to grow. Once they’re big enough their take over your body and change it and you end up looking almost entirely starved with this sickly grey-purple skin and a face full of tentacles.” Pressing his hand under his jaw his waved his fingers about to lighten the mood which was only marginally successful. “They live in colonies on the southern borders of the ancient Dwemer empire and their changes have also left them extremely powerful in illusion magicka. Also, as far as I can tell they have some sort of hive-mind like a nest of kwama. As long as they don’t think that you are weaker than them they are some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, but I certainly wouldn’t buy a used cart off any of them.”  
  
Starting from the outside of the circle, he began marking a new series of lines that connected all three of their circles to the one set aside for himself. The three women somehow knew that he had been uncertain whether they would all have agreed to assist him and so couldn’t have finished the scrying circle until knowing how many of them were going to be involved.  
  
“So the _Haszak_ , what the Drow call _Illithids_ , were called upon by the rest of the Dwemer Empire to turn the Snow Elves into a race more suited for slavery. I have no idea how they managed it but I know that the Falmer were forced to live off some of the fungus and mushrooms that exist in the Underdark which stripped them of their sight, and then they did something and reduced them into those hunchbacked things we all met a few weeks ago. Obviously the Falmer didn’t take too kindly to such changes and they too rebelled and started a war against the Dwemer.”  
  
“How long did the war last?”  
  
Kaius shrugged again in Sofia’s direction. “I don’t think that anyone knows. One of the problems with the Underdark is that there is no day or night and no seasons. Whenever it started is unknown but the rebellion continued right up until the Dwemer vanished during the Battle of Red Mountain. There aren’t many records of what happened then anyway but after the Dwemer vanished, the Falmer suddenly found themselves with almost free reign in the Underdark. Instead of unifying and civilising themselves their whole society seemed to collapse in a few generations.”  
  
Trying not to look discomforted at the memories of the Falmer, Sofia also tried and failed to hide the shudder that ran through her body. “Couldn’t they have just gained access to the Dwemer cities and strongholds?”  
  
“Have you seen the Dwemer cities? Even after three thousand years their Animunculi still patrol their halls and their traps are just as dangerous as ever. They may have been fighting a war against the Chimer at that time but they were also fighting against the Falmer which meant that their settlements and strongholds are defended both on the surface and underground. Personally I think this is part of the reason why the Falmer Culture destroyed itself the way it did. The Underdark is… well, it’s not a very pleasant place to begin with and in many cases the only thing you can eat is each other.”  
  
“So why now? Why are they arriving on the surface?”  
  
Lydia nodded in agreement to Sofia’s question. “And how hasn’t anyone seen or heard of them before? I haven’t even heard of any tales or legends of creatures like those things.”  
  
“The answer to that is several-fold.” Kaius replied, moving over to place the pestle and brush against the wall before moving to his circle. “Firstly; they have been trapped underground and I know from personal experience that travelling between the Underdark and the Surface is extremely difficult. The only ways to the surface are either through places like Red Mountain which means you need to swim through lava, through the heavily fortified and protected Dwemer cities or somehow managing to fight or travel through the territories controlled by the Illithid Colonies and the Drow City-States. Secondly; until the last few hundred years they haven’t had any need or haven’t had anything forcing them to make the attempts. The Underdark is dangerous but it isn’t entirely barren, the caverns do have enough food and other resources for them to reach a steady population.”  
  
“So what changed?”  
  
“The Red Year. When the Red mountain erupted and destroyed Vvardenfell it also destroyed or heavily damaged the Underdark. The Falmer for the most part have inhabited the ancient Dwemer territories and kept in check by the Illithid colonies. The best guess that I can make is that the Illithids are mostly located under the Cyrodiil borders of Hammerfell and Skyrim and they are smack in the middle of the Drow and Falmer. When the Red Year occurred large portions of the Underdark under Morrowind were either collapsed, filled with lava or both. Whatever Falmer survived were forced to migrate to the west, displacing others of their kind in their path and forcing them to forage and expand wherever they could. The eruption and earthquakes also damaged many of the Dwemer fortresses and this damage, combined with the increase in numbers and desperation of the Falmer mean that there is a good chance they could claim such places as their own.”  
  
“Good gods… Markarth…” Sofia hissed as she went slightly pale.  
  
Soberly Kaius nodded. “A war unlike anything Tamriel has seen before is approaching. After the Great War I left the Surface to be with my wife in the Underdark, but the Falmer have been growing in number and more tenacious. I have been sent here to try to prepare the surface world for this invasion and I had originally come to Skyrim to put an end to the civil war.”  
  
“How…” Lydia asked with her eyes narrowing in Kaius’ direction as he sat in his circle and began breathing more steadily.  
  
“By either assisting Ulfric in gaining a throne and Skyrim’s independence,” he said very softly. “Or by killing him and the rest of the Stormcloak leadership as required. It didn’t matter which, but now I also have to deal with the return of Dragons and a vampiric plot to remove the sun. As you can expect if the world is plunged into darkness, that is going to only aid a race of beings who can only exist in the shadows…”  
  
“Where does this scrying circle come into this then?”  
  
“I need to tell others what we have discovered and what is occurring up here so they can make their own preparations and strategies. There are plenty of others that need to know what I am doing.”  
  
“Like who?”  
  
Kaius didn’t answer, giving a smile that while confident was appearing uneasy. Carefully and as silence fell in the room he closed his eyes and began muttering and casting strange shapes in the air. They all could feel the way the temperature of the room dropped several degrees which left their breaths fuming as all the energies were drawn into him and the circle on the floor. Half seen shapes refused to allow themselves to be seen as they darted in the corners of their eyes, the shadows themselves bending themselves to Kaius’ will and leaving all three women sitting in their circles and looking very uneasy. This was a magicka that none of them had even seen before and they all jumped when Kaius blurted the final word of the ritual and the collection of candles scattered about simultaneously burst into flame.  
  
The shadows of the room deepened despite the sudden number of light sources being born into existence and within seconds the walls and doorways were lost in the impenetrable blackness that consumed everything outside of the circle. It was all encompassing and even Serana was left feeling uncomfortable at the fact that even her vampiric sight was unable to pierce it.  
  
In the circle the shadows twisted and writhed of their own accord, swirling about themselves and forming impossible shapes of darkened nothingness. Even with the flickering candles contained in the circle it soon became difficult for the four of them to see each other but somewhere in the heart of the ritual something shifted at Kaius’ summons.  
  
A pair of burning red glows appeared, twisting and moving from each of the companions in turn as they each instinctively flinched away. There were the faint suggestions of a body within the mist-like shadows, a silhouette of femininity and the curve of hip and breast that turned and gazed upon Kaius with eyes like burning coals and a voice like silk.  
  
“ _Vendui Mrannd’ssinss_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter contains a significant amount of my world building for the _Bloodtide Rising_ universe and how the Drow and Illithids and the Underdark overall is incorporated into Tamriel. Most of it is very self explanatory but there are a few points that I really want to highlight:
> 
> -Kaius' ingredients in the Scrying circle have been specifically chosen. One of the first types of mods I use in my games are ones that expand upon Magicka and Alchemy. Void Salts and Jazbay Grapes create fortify Magicka potions in Skyrim, and Lavender and Tundra Cotton are ingredients for Resist Magicka. The flower petals are also representing the Mountain Flowers in game as the red ones can also be used in making fortify Magicka Potions. This is a perfect example of the level of detail that I go into for all of my fics, and you can guanatee that every little detail I add into my writing references _something_
> 
> For examples: 
> 
> -While it is probably not going to be implicitly stated, the "Great Collapse" of Winterhold in this universe is from the continuous movement of Magma through the portions of the Underdark under Morrowind throughout the 4th Era - which has been continuously displacing the Falmer and forcing them into conflict with the other denziens of the 'Underdark'
> 
> -The 'Kingdom of Blackreach' (Or Zhardum D’faldin in Dwemeris - hehe) isn't a single cavern tucked away by itself under most of Skyrim but actually part of the 'Upperdark' in this setting. 
> 
> -In-game the Falmer are found in caves and ruins etc all over Skyrim, and as most people in game don't show much familiarity with them (if they are even thought to exist) it shows that there has to be some way that have managed to survive and infest the province. Tying the Red Year and its follow on effects to their appearance and 'recent' infestation of some of the Dwemer Ruins was a touch of genius, if I say so myself. XD
> 
> -In Drow, the Illithids are called _Haszak_ whereas in Dwemeris the term for Precision engineer/Tonal Modulator is _Razak_. Throw in the fact that the Dwemer have not existed in Tamriel for 3000+ years has left me with a perfect opportunity to add to their lore and incorporate one of the most infamous races from D &D into Tamriel. I'd love everyone's feedback or thoughts on this idea/detail, especially for any lore buffs out there!
> 
> -The Illithids being the 'flesh-engineers' of the Dwemer using Tonal Architecture/Magic also allows me to create my own explanation of how the Falmer went from the likes of Knight-Paladin Gelebor to the hunchbacked Morlock-like critters we all know and love in only a few generations. 
> 
> -The Illithids changing from Dwemer into the tentacle-faced, worm laying monsters isn't too far of a stretch of the imagination in the realm of Elder Scrolls Lore. Crazier shit has happened... (I.e. Dragon-breaks, CHIM, the Numidium, the whole situation with Dagoth Ur etc etc.)


	5. The Ritual

Sofia, Lydia and Serana all stared in amazement as the shadows growing from the centre of the circle condensed together and lengthened into a woman. She was as tall as Sofia and Serana, and while she lacked the height of Lydia she much closer in build than the other two women. For a few seconds they were all left believing that the ritual had left her an appearance of a shadow but almost instantaneously they all realised that her flesh was truly as black as the night itself. It wasn’t a complete black, but it certainly was much darker than Dunmer and gave her the complexion of polished ebony than charcoal.  
  
In comparison her hair was a pale as freshly fallen snow and hung in stark contrast with her flesh down to her shoulder blades, swaying in the faint breeze in the room and appearing immaculate and without the slightest hints of tangles or burrs. What surprised them the most though once they realised it was the fact that she too was as heavily scarred as what Kaius was, but unlike their companion hers’ were encompassing her entire body. This simple fact was easily identifiable as she was wearing very little besides a flowing silk dress tied off at the neck that covered the front of her torso and wrapped around her hips. It also left almost nothing to the imagination as she turned about the room.  
  
“Hello _Mrimmd’ssinss_.” Kaius said, a true smile of happiness appearing on his face like the sun appearing from behind storm clouds.  
  
“I received your summons.” There was an underlying tone of haughtiness as she slowly looked about the room and the intricate circle that Kaius had painstakingly made on the floor. “I must say I was expecting to hear from you sooner.”  
  
“I have been busy.”  
  
Carefully turning and looking at the three women sitting around the circle, the dark fleshed being in the centre regarded each and every one of them with an appraising eye. Judging by the expression she was wearing as she turned back to face Kaius she was not entirely impressed at what she had seen.  
  
“ _Vel’uss ph’nind_?”  
  
“ _Ussta abbanen_ .” He replied, looking somewhat embarrassed as she turned again and moved closer to each one of them in turn.  
  
Sofia shrunk back from the woman’s gaze as she moved closer and she was amazed at how lithe and graceful she was as she moved. Every single gesture or movement was precise and controlled, flowing like liquid as her eyes burned into Sofia’s.  
  
“ _Vel’bolen d’mina inbal dos orlinggus_?”  
  
Uncharacteristically, Kaius seemed a combination of embarrassed and nervous in front of this woman and none of his companions failed to notice such a detail.  
  
“ _Naust_. ” Gesturing between the three of them in turn, “Sofia, Lydia, Serana… Meet Viconia DeVir. My wife.”  
  
The glowing red eyes matched Serana’s in intensity but they were different, colder somehow as she looked at each of them in turn as Kaius pointed them out. She moved carefully around the circle, never seemingly steeped outside of its interior and leaving all three other women realising that there was something distinctly off with her. She was there, but not there, as solid as the stones under her bare feet but yet as substantial as mist. The way she spoke was also disconcerting with the unfamiliar words not entirely matching up with the movements of her mouth.  
  
“Must you always leave out my title _Mrannd’ssinss_?” her laugh was musical and yet somehow chilling as she moved away from studying Sofia and towards Serana. “Surely you have told them who and what we are.”  
  
“Only partially.” He said with extreme honesty. “They know a little of the Underdark and its realms.”  
  
“Well, that certainly won’t stand.” Viconia said with a voice as smooth and cold as the flat of a blade along the skin. “I am certainly his wife, but what he has failed to mention is that between the two of us we rule the Drow.”  
  
In an attempt to slow the way her heart was hammering in her chest, Sofia laughed out loud. “He certainly doesn’t look like a king.”  
  
Flicking some hair back over a shoulder, Viconia smiled at Sofia but there was something predatory in the expression that chilled the blood. “Oh, you are most certainly right. I never could truly imbue him with any semblance of grace and nobility, but the true title is _Emperor_ rather than king.”  
  
Serana sat as still as a stone as Viconia leaned down, sniffing her scent on the air and regarding the pale skinned woman as she would an expensive bauble or pet. “A vampire? _Xun dos lac ulu mei’d uns’aa, ussta ssinssrigg_?”  
  
“No. Never.” He replied with some haste.  
  
Again there was the same laugh that was somehow uplifting and bone chilling and she pouted in Kaius’ direction. “Always so serious. Maybe you should sleep with one of these to calm your nerves.”  
  
It was uncertain who was more embarrassed out of the group of them as Kaius looked distinctly uneasy and stammered for a second. “ _Usstan gumash naut xun nindel ichl dos…_ ” He said with some difficulty.  
  
“ _Ele naut? Dos inbal zuch inbalus ussta dumoas lueth usstan orn'la naut talinth jala n'nehr de' dos?_ ”  
  
“Viconia, we don’t have time for this.”  
  
“You’re right, we really don’t.” With an almost impossible grace he seemed to glide over the floor to where Lydia sat and the burning glows for eyes moved in closer as she bent at the waist to more closely study the Housecarl. “Time is running out for all of us.”  
  
With less than an arm’s distance between them, Lydia could see the scars and the angular, elven beauty of the Drow carefully examining her. Her every nerve and instinct was screaming at her and more importantly she knew that Viconia could sense her discomfort and unease.  
  
Her dark lips parted in a dangerous smile and revealed a mouthful of perfect teeth. It also revealed a pair of incisors _much_ longer than normal and instinctively Lydia reacted without hesitation.  
  
The grin remained but Viconia continued looked the Housecarl in the eyes despite the knife at her throat. This time though the smile was much more welcoming and she was looking very pleased as she moved away from the knife wielding Nord. “I like this one.” She said, smiling and raising a curved eyebrow as Lydia slowly and carefully sheathed her knife. “As always _Mrannd’ssinss_ ; your tastes are impeccable.”  
  
“Viconia, they have reached the surface.”  
  
All traces of amusement suddenly vanished and in an instant Viconia’s face had hardened into a mask of determination and annoyance. “Where? When?”  
  
“A couple of weeks ago we encountered a small nest that managed to tunnel their way into a Lighthouse basement. There was only a handful of family groups in the nest but where there are some…”  
  
“There are many more.” Viconia replied bitterly. “Where was this?”  
  
“In between Dawnstar and Winterhold on the northern coast.”  
  
“That’s…”  
  
“Well within their territories, I know. There haven’t been any other reports of attacks or encounters but with everything going on in Skyrim we’re not going to hear of anything until its too late.”  
  
“I am assuming then that you are still unsuccessful in your mission?”  
  
Grimacing in more than just annoyance at her tone, Kaius frowned and his face tightened. “Things are much more complicated since I left Cyrodiil. Once again I’m trapped in the weave of the Elder Scrolls.”  
  
The way that the silence fell between Kaius and his wife was telling, as was her long, drawn out breath. “How bad?”  
  
“Bad enough that if I don’t do something about it there won’t be any world left for the Falmer to overrun.” Gesturing hopelessly about himself he too sighed as loudly as she did. “I’m apparently _Tagnik’zurrosin_ , and the only one capable of stopping the return of dragons and the end of the world.”  
  
Viconia sat heavily onto the floor, crossing her legs and staring at him with something akin to sorrow and pity in her eyes. “ _The towers will fall; a hero stands tall. Mortal men – the Mer shall fool_.”  
  
“ _Those without eyes, shall gaze upon skies. The Empress and the Dragon shall rule_.” Kaius finished for her, leaving his companions looking amongst themselves.  
  
“So…” Sofia said as the silence returned and hung over them all like a storm cloud. “What was that?”  
  
“Part of a prophecy that we have heard several times from several sources over our lives.” Viconia replied, not bothering to look at anyone else but Kaius. “One that we were hoping wasn’t going to come to fruition.”  
  
“The Civil war is still raging in Skyrim but unfortunately it is less of a problem than the return of the dragons. On top of all of this there is currently a vampiric conspiracy to block out the light of the sun which isn’t going to help anyone.”  
  
“Is this why you are with my husband?” Viconia said, looking over to Serana.  
  
Somehow the ancient vampiress was left wondering if she had heard the mocking tone in Viconia’s voice as she spoke the word ‘ _husband_ ’. “Yes. My father is the one seeking to remove or block the sun and while I knew that it was going to be a problem I now understand just what a threat he is.”  
  
“It’s definitely a threat.” Viconia’s voice was a muted hiss now. “If the _Calussai d'lil elghinyrr_ have reached the surface by now then it is only a matter of time before they begin to appear in numbers. The sun is one of the few things that will give them pause, especially if the _kivvin_ aren’t prepared.”  
  
Kaius ran his tongue over his lips and teeth in his own scowl, his voice carefully worded. “How goes your preparations?”  
  
“Well enough, but there have been losses. Fighting a defensive war is no longer suitable and we cannot wait much longer before we have to strike back. The City-States are slowly coming together and joining the confederacy but it is not quick enough.”  
  
“How bad are the losses?”  
  
Giving a noncommittal shrug, Viconia looked Kaius in the eye. “Jhachalkhyn and T’lindhet have fallen to the horde, and almost all of the northern cities are coming under direct attack. As far as any of us can tell, the only Mind-Flayers still alive are within our protectorate and they are proving to be valuable auxiliaries.”  
  
“What about our forces?”  
  
“Four legions have been trained and readied from Menzoberranzan alone, with two or three from every neighbouring city. Your reforms among the soldiery have been exceptional _Mrannd’ssinss_. You’ll also be glad to hear that the dissident cities have started emancipating and training their slave populations like us. Seeing our effectiveness combined with the increasing assaults they have been suffering have provided the last push they needed to free their slaves.”  
  
“You are ready for war indeed.”  
  
The dark tone of his voice was not missed from the Drow sitting in front of him. “We are. Now it is up to you.”  
  
“What is?” Asked Sofia, once again choosing to ignore her mind’s whispered warnings and those of everyone around her to keep her mouth closed.  
  
Slowly, Viconia again looked back at her with a smile. “Kaius was supposed to prepare the surface to withstand the invasion of the Falmer.”  
  
“From the sounds of things, you and your… people have been preparing to fight these things for a while now. Can’t you handle them on your own?”  
  
There was a second of hesitation from the beautiful Drow and Sofia wasn’t sure whether she felt nervous from the sheer force of her personality or jealous that this was the woman that Kaius had given his heart to. She never did like coming second place to anyone.  
  
“The Drow empire is more than capable of crushing these _vermin_ but it isn’t as simple as killing them all. As my forces push north through the caverns the horde will quickly begin to run and there are only so many places they can try to hide before they begin to flee to the surface. They will overwhelm some of the dwarven ruins from sheer weight of numbers alone, and if that happens…”  
  
“Skyrim will find itself faced with an invasion.” Lydia whispered.  
  
Viconia and Kaius nodded as one. “An invasion that they cannot hold off in their current state.” He said bitterly. “This will be an invasion unlike anything seen before and will encompass the whole province, most of Hammerfell and portions of Morrowind. High Rock will be cut off from Cyrodiil and the Imperials will be left alone to face the full might of the Aldmeri Dominion. Do you think that the Thalmor will simply sit back and watch as northern Tamriel is swamped with Falmer?”  
  
“How many are there?” Serana asked hesitatingly.  
  
“Tens of thousands.” There was no mistaking the tremor in Viconia’s voice as she uttered the number. “And that’s being optimistic. Skyrim alone could very well face a disorganised horde in the hundreds of thousands, appearing from every cave, Dwemer ruin and crack in the ground and that will only be a fraction of the animals’ true strength. Unless unified the only defence you all will have is your winters and the sun and they won’t nearly be enough.”  
  
She turned back to Kaius with a dark pall falling over her face. “We cannot hold off for much longer. We must go on the offensive soon otherwise other cities will fall and what cohesion we have forged among our people will be lost. I can give you a few more months to prepare the surface but in four, maybe five months we will march.”  
  
“I understand.” He said bitterly, his eyes cast down to the ground and appearing as tense as a stone. “I’ll will do what I can.”  
  
“A lot more than just the Drow depends on you Kaius. You have to succeed in this.”  
  
One of the candles to his right flickered as it rapidly consumed the wick and shortened from the ritual. They all knew that it was weakening, even before Viconia’s appearance began to shimmer and lose coherence like an oil painting left in the rain.  
  
“I know.” His eyes rose from the floor into the features of the woman he loved and he smiled, one of his smiles that were truly rare for anyone else to see. “I love you Viconia.”  
  
Despite his words Viconia’s smile wasn’t as warm and the emotion didn’t seem to reach her eyes. Kaius’ companions could only watch as the magical energies of the ritual burned out, snuffing the light of the candles and burning through the circle’s alchemical ingredients from the inside out. Viconia lips remained sealed as she faded like smoke in the breeze, her shape finally losing all form and dissipating with the last of the candlelight.  
  
The room was suddenly, emptier and not just from the lack of Viconia’s personality. Kaius’ companions could only sit there in awkward silence as they looked at the man they had been journeying with for the past months slumped forward. All three of them were internally hoping that it was the strain of the ritual that had exhausted him, but in the instant before the shadows consumed the room they found themselves looking upon a man almost broken by the weight of his responsibility.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't help but have Viconia have her very own cameo in this series, but unfortunately she will not be taking an overt part of Kaius' adventures. I am already feeling the strain keeping up with Kaius, Sofia, Lydia and Serana and as much as I love her as a character she has an Empire of her own to run these days. 
> 
> I would absolutely love feedback on this story, especially how my focus for the last few have shifted away from conflict and fight scenes and more into this character and world development. 
> 
> But never fear if you seek battles and action. Next stop for Kaius and the others is Aftand...
> 
> Translations: 
> 
> Vel’uss ph’nind? - Who are they?
> 
> Ussta abbanen - my allies/companions
> 
> Vel’bolen d’mina inbal dos orlinggus? - which of them have you bedded?
> 
> Naust - None
> 
> Xun dos lac ulu mei’d uns’aa, ussta ssinssrigg - Do you wish to trade/replace me my love?
> 
> Usstan gumash naut xun nindel ichl dos - I could never do such a thing to you
> 
> Ele naut? Dos inbal zuch inbalus ussta dumoas lueth usstan orn'la naut talinth jala n'nehr de' dos - Why not? You have always had my blessing and I would not think any less of you
> 
> Tagnik’zurrosin - Dragonborn
> 
> Calussai d'lil elghinyrr - Eaters of the Dead
> 
> Kivvin - Surfacers


End file.
